Thursday, December 28, 2006

"Sex and Bingo" by Elaine Viets

From: High Stakes: 8 Sure-Bet Stories of Gambling and Crime, ed. Robert J. Randisi. Signet, 2003.

Viets's new series character, Helen Hawthorne, is a fugitive surviving on temp jobs after catching her husband with another woman and taking a crowbar to his skull. In this titillatingly-titled story, Helen is working at a boutique aboard a cruise ship when she suspects the bar manager and bingo caller— a good-ol'-boy named Jimmy—is running a scam. The question is how to prove it.

The story ran almost forty pages, but was plotted well enough to hold my interest. I did mind that it was written in third-person, with too much Helen this and Helen that. I wanted to get to know her better.

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